Coinbase prepares for listing on Wall Street. A debut that could reach a valuation of 100 billion dollars. A stellar walk if we think that Coinbase is a company that didn’t exist 10 years ago. The event is reflected in the price of bitcoin which touches 63,000 dollars.
It is a direct listing, with no issue of new shares, but only with the opening to the public of the possibility of selling and buying existing shares. The goal is therefore not to raise funds with new shares, but to become a listed company by giving shareholders the opportunity to monetize their shares, with exchanges limited to the secondary market, so it is not yet known what the initial sale price will be.
But it’s not just a test for Coinbase, it’s also a way to test investor’s maturity for digital currencies. The landing on the stock exchange can in fact be that injection of confidence able to reassure consumers about the goodness and efficiency of cryptocurrencies, giving the sector a decisive boost.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of the exchange, is convinced that the world is now on the verge of adopting digital currencies, and his company is perfectly positioned to seize the opportunity offered by the crypto revolution. Coinbase expects to close the first quarter of the year with a profit between 730 and 800 million dollars, more than double what it earned in the whole of 2020. Revenues are instead expected to exceed 1.3 billion of last year’s total.
